Major search engines lost their motion to dismiss a California lawsuit

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The lawsuit, filed last August in California Superior Court in San Francisco, alleges that Google, Yahoo, Overture, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, AltaVista, Terra Lycos, Jupiter, FindWhat, Kanoodle, Business.com and Sex.Com, acted illegally by accepting advertisements promoting online casinos.

“The search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, attempted to convince the court that they could advertise internet gambling with immunity – the court rejected that notion and allowed the case to proceed,” said Reed Kathrein, an attorney for the plaintiffs, two gamblers who lost money at online casinos they found using sponsored links at named websites.

“We are optimistic the court will find that the defendants were involved in an unlawful business activity when they actively advertised for a fee illegal internet gambling and that the court will enjoin such activity,” added Ira Rothken, another attorney for the plaintiffs.